Office of Defender Services
TRAINING BRANCH


The Office of Defender Services Training Branch furthers the right to effective assistance of counsel by providing training and other resources to attorneys appointed under the Criminal Justice Act.






    May 09, 2012

    Further Analysis of TRAC Report Underscores its Flawed Assumptions

    On March 5, 2012, the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) announced “Wide Variations Seen in Federal Sentencing,” and stated in a press release that it had discovered “extensive and hard-to-explain variations in the sentencing practices of district court judges.” This updated report by Sentencing Resource Counsel reveals that TRAC’s assumptions regarding cases and caseloads among judges in the same district are flawed.

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    April 30, 2012
    Supreme Court to Rule on Retroactivity of Padilla v. Kentucky

    Earlier today the Supreme Court granted certiorari in Chaidez v. United States (11-820).  In Chaidez, the issue presented is whether the Court’s decision in Padilla v. Kentucky, holding that criminal defendants receive ineffective assistance of counsel under the Sixth Amendment when their attorneys fail to advise them that pleading guilty to an offense will subject them to deportation, applies to persons whose convictions became final before its announcement.
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    April 25, 2012
    Supreme Court Holds That Appellate Court Cannot Undo State's Deliberate Waiver of its AEDPA Time Limitation Defense

    Yesterday, the Supreme Court issued an opinion in Wood v. Milyard (10-9995), holding that where the state had deliberately waived its claim that Wood's habeas petition was untimely under AEDPA, the Court of Appeals erred in raising and deciding the timeliness bar sua sponte.
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    April 18, 2012
    Sentencing Commission Promulgates 2012 Amendments Guidelines

    On Friday, April 13th, the Sentencing Commission voted to promulgate amendments to the sentencing guidelines on a wide array of subjects. These amendments will be submitted to Congress by May 1, 2012. Barring congressional action, they will take effect November 1, 2012. View this summary of the amendments for more information. On the Commission's website you can also view the text of the proposed amendments.
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    April 03, 2012

    Supreme Court Holds That Routine Jail Strip Searches Are Constitutional Even Without Reasonable Suspicion; Court Also Grants Cert in Immigration Case to Determine Whether Minor Marijuana Offense Constitutes an Aggravated Felony

    Yesterday, the Court acted on two cases of interest to criminal defense practitioners.

    Dividing 5-4, the Court held in Florence v. Board of Chosen Freeholders of the County of Burlington (No. 10-945) that any person arrested who is being admitted to the general jail population may be subjected to a strip search involving only visual inspection, even absent reasonable suspicion that the prisoner is dangerous or likely to be carrying a concealed weapon or drugs. For an analysis of the opinion see this SCOTUSblog post.

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    March 28, 2012

    Supreme Court Upholds District Court’s Discretion to Determine Whether a Federal Sentence Should Run Consecutively to an Anticipated State Sentence


    Today, the Supreme Court issued its opinion in Setser v. United States (No. 10-7387), holding that the District Court has discretion to order that a defendant’s sentence run consecutively to his anticipated, but not yet imposed, state sentence. For more on the opinion, see this SCOTUSblog post and this Sentencing Law and Policy post.

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    March 27, 2012

    Supreme Court to Address Use of Narcotics Dogs to Establish Probable Cause


    Yesterday, the Supreme Court granted certiorari in Florida v. Harris (No. 11-817). The Court has been asked to determine whether the Florida Supreme Court has decided an important federal question in a way that conflicts with the established Fourth Amendment precedent of the U.S. Supreme Court by holding that an alert by a well-trained narcotics detection dog certified to detect illegal contraband is insufficient to establish probable cause for the search of a vehicle.

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